‘Runaway bride’ who scammed 14 husbands is sentenced
A Las Vegas woman has been sentenced to probation after it was found that she married 14 different men to fund her gambling addiction.
Jiaying Chen, 34, was convicted on multiple counts of bigamy, fraud, and obtaining money under pretenses on Tuesday, following a guilty plea in July, according to The Las Vegas Journal.
District Judge Crystal Eller sentenced Chen to probation with mandatory attendance at Gamblers Anonymous meetings, counseling for gambling addiction, and a $280,000 restitution fee as well as electronic monitoring, The Las Vegas Journal reported.
‘That having been said, I also do think that it would be appropriate for her to finish her one year in Clark County Detention Center so that she understands what looking at eight to 20 [years] in prison really looks like, Eller said, News 3 reported.
Chen appeared in court Tuesday, as did Raymond Tam, one of fourteen marriage fraud victims, who gave his victim impact testimony, the outlet reported.
‘Mentally, every day, I’m distressed, and I’m not able to sleep,’ Tam said in court, according to The Last Vegas Journal.
Chen had fourteen husbands whom she would extort money from to fund her gambling habits.
Using a fake ID under the name ‘Vicky Liang’ for seven years, Chen convinced her husbands to send her more than $100,000 collectively by claiming she desperately needed the funds to help sick relatives in China, prosecutors said at the time of her guilty plea.
LVMPD said several of her current and previous spouses claimed Chen had convinced them to get married after only several months of knowing each other.
Chen used the money she got from her spouses to gamble at the luxury Wynn casino on the Las Vegas Strip, where she lost more than $300,000 in the last year alone, according to police.
‘It appears the money she has obtained goes to gambling and not relatives overseas,’ police said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
‘Chen would provide different stories, some involving sick family members in China, and would start asking for money,’ police said, according to the LV Journal.
‘Once Chen received the money, she would break all communication with them.’
Chen told detectives she ‘could make as much as $20,000 from one marriage’ and that she ‘only conducts the fake marriages in Las Vegas because it is so easy to get married.’
Chen’s attorney Thomas Wells said Chen is remorseful and admitted to struggling with gambling addiction, the LV Journal reported.
–
Source: ‘Runaway bride’ who scammed 14 husbands is sentenced
About Post Author
